The Professor's Story of Braces at 40 (with pics)

[metalliKa]

Absolutely! Girls can be anything they want, even be the President of the U.S. Of A! One can only hope, someday!

[TheProfessor]

That is so true, MetalliKa!

I had a whole morning of dental fun today. I first went to my ortho to get my wires removed, then headed over to my dentist for a 6 month cleaning, did a little shopping and had a wireless lunch, and then went back to the ortho to get my wires put back in. The cleaning went well, my hygienist was happy that I haven't slacked off on my cleaning routine. I had noticed a brown spot right by one of my upper brackets and was worried that it was a cavity, but it was just some staining that could be scraped off.

The tech had a lot of trouble tying the elastic tie around my top front teeth--she snapped my lip with the elastic a couple of times. I decided to try a colored power chain on my lowers and got a pretty turquoise blue. As I I was admiring the chain when I got back to work I noticed that it was only going from first molar to first molar instead of second to second as it has been since February. So, I called the ortho office to see if this is ok and the receptionist checked and left me a message that said: "It is fine, they just tie it that way sometimes. The ortho says that you will be ok until your adjustment in 3 weeks, but you can come back and get it re-done if you want." If it is true that it doesn't matter, then why do they ever extend the chain to the second molars? So it can trap food??? I'm pretty annoyed that it wasn't done as prescribed because I saw what happened when I didn't have a chain for 5 weeks-my teeth tipped out, messed up my bite, and irritated my tmj. I had meetings all afternoon and didn't get the message until it was too late to call back. I guess I will wait and see if my lower incisors start to flare out again or if my jaw starts to hurt again...

[TheProfessor]

I think that my lower teeth are almost back where they were before the banding in June. Here are some progress pics with my new blue power chain!



And here is the day 1 (March 25, 2014) picture to remind myself how far I've come:

[metalliKa]

You've definitely come a long way! Your before and after lower arch are like night and day! Such great progress and the progress will only get greater!

[TheProfessor]

Thanks, metalliKa! As much as I'm hating my braces right now, I'm still glad I did it. I just want to be done now!!!

I decided to go back to my ortho and get my power chain replaced to the correct configuration. I knew that I would obsess over it until my next adjustment in September if I didn't do it. I don't think the employees at my ortho are allowed to admit that a mistake was made. The head tech (the best one) changed my power chain today. She wouldn't admit that it was done wrong yesterday, but she did think that maybe the tech got confused by my wisdom teeth. Ha!

[newbite]

That's really silly they wouldn't admit they're wrong, but I'm glad you got it fixed! I have tiebacks on all 4 sides from hooks at the front to my 2nd molars are they DO trap so much food! Mainly at the front behind the hook and at the very back. So annoying!!

Your teeth look wonderful! Love the blue, too

[TheProfessor]

I had my 10th adjustment today and am now at 17.5 months with braces. My ortho was back and spent a long time looking at my bite from all different angles. Then she told me that she REALLY thinks that I should get my wisdom teeth removed. She said that the angle of some of them is messing up my bite and that it will be much easier to get a stable bite that won't irritate my tmj if they are gone. She convinced me--now I need to call my dentist and see what happens next. Hopefully they will come out easily and not disrupt my life too much!

In other news, I now have .019x.025 finishing wires on both my upper and lower teeth. She spent a long time making bends in the upper wire to "detail" my incisors and I can feel that some teeth have new pressure on them. My lower wire also has some bends in it. I am power chain free again but still have the elastic tie that keeps my upper front teeth from moving apart. I asked my ortho the dreaded "how much longer?" question and she said about 6 months. That means I'm on target for finishing at 24 months. That also means that I'm almost 3/4 of the way done!

I thought that I might get elastics at this appointment, but they weren't mentioned at all. It looks like I'm going to dodge that bullet for a bit longer!

My next adjustment is not for 8 weeks! I complained that it seems like a long time when the assistant told me this, but she said it means I don't have very many adjustments left.

I had a really good tech and my adjustment went pretty smoothly with almost no pain. I think it also helps that my lower teeth are more upright so it is easier to close the doors around the big archwires.

There was a guy about my age getting his braces off and I was SO jealous! I hope the next 6 months go by quickly!!!!

[newbite]

I hope your wisdom teeth removal is uneventful! Perhaps since they're fully erupted and in good positions they should be pretty easy (hopefully?? vs crazy impacted wisdoms, anyway). How would that effect your treatment, though? Would your teeth all spread out because of the new room and then you have to deal with that?

Hey you never know, maybe you will never get elastics! Do you have a bite problem? For some reason I've assumed you're class 1. If you do have a bite problem I wonder why they would wait so long to give you elastics? Although elastics are also for things like midline correction and open bite, not just jaw position.

And congrats on the finishing wires! I definitely had some pain with the bends they put in them, but nothing that lasted longer than a day or two and it never kept me from eating .

The end is in sight!

[TheProfessor]

Thanks, newbite!
At my consultation I was told that i had an overjet and overbite and that I was class 1 on the left side and almost class 2 on the right side (upper teeth too far forward) and that my treatment would include elastics at some point. I think that braces alone might have corrected most of the right side problem-it seems like my teeth are meshing together pretty well on that side. My overjet is almost gone and I think the overbite also is much better. Maybe slow and steady wins the race?

My ortho thinks that my wisdom teeth should come out easily-she thought that my regular dentist might even do it herself, but I'll have to see if she would rather refer me to an oral surgeon. I don't think my teeth will move back into the new spaces, I actually think my lower 2nd molar on the right would finally have room to straighten up (it is sitting at a weirder angle than the wisdom tooth beside it).

Now that the decision is finally made, I want to get it done as soon as possible! I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays this semester, so if I could get it done late on a Wednesday afternoon I would have 4 full recovery days before I really have to speak in front of people again. I think that might work if nothing complicated happens.

[TheProfessor]

As I was waiting for my adjustment this morning, a lady came in with 3 kids, around age 8-12. They all went back together for consultations. They all had pretty bad overjets (I'm an armchair orthodontist now). The little girl was really nervous and made me think back to when I had my first consultation. I hope the ortho offers a family discount!

[NeilH]

Welcome to the armchair orthodontist club, its amazing how empowered we feel to diagnose other patients!! Don't worry about class 2 elastics if you get them. It took me all of five minutes to get used to them and they worked really quickly (well that's orthodontics really quickly that bears little resemblance to actual time). Great progress BTW.

[TheProfessor]

I had a consultation for my wisdom teeth removal today and was surprised to find that my oral surgeon has braces!!! He is the first fellow adult braces wearer that I've actually talked to since having braces and he goes to the same orthodontist as me! I kept staring at his teeth when we were talking, he has the same setup as me and his braces looked good on him. He was really nice and understanding about my apprehension with the whole procedure- I think I can trust him to do a good job! I told him that my orthodontist thought that my wisdom teeth could probably be removed with just local anesthetic and he convinced me that IV sedation would be a good idea since he would be cutting some of the bone around the roots so that the teeth would come out easier, necessary since I'm not a teenager and the roots are fully formed. The assistant also told me that I wouldn't want to be awake to hear the sounds that take place during wisdom teeth extraction. He compared my orthodontist's prediction with a regular dentist who tells a patient that they can get their teeth straightened with Invisalign and then the orthodontist tells them that they need full braces.

The other interesting thing was that the dr told me to chew soft food with my molars the evening that I get the extractions. He said that it is important to exercise the jaws so that the muscles don't "seize up" and take longer to get back to normal. I was imagining a liquid diet for several days....

They had an opening next Thursday, but I already had plans to go out of town for a wedding two days later, so I scheduled my extractions for October 22. They were good about getting me in on a Thursday so that I will have 4 whole days to recover before I have to teach on the following Monday. Wish me luck....

[NeilH]

Good luck with getting your wisdom teeth out and it's nice to hear that your surgeon also has braces, at least he can sympathise with you. I think it should be compulsory that all orthodontists, dental nurses, receptionists, treatment planners etc. should have braces at some point so they can better understand what we are putting ourselves through!! Hope all goes well on the 22nd.

[TheProfessor]

Thanks, NeilH! I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing-I've never had any kind of surgery and it freaked me out when they told me they would see me next month for my surgery as I was leaving! It is too bad that I have a trip planned and couldn't do it next week. Now I have a whole month to obsess and worry about it

My orthodontist had adult braces when she was in dental school and at least two of the techs at her office currently have braces. I do think it makes them more sympathetic when they torture me!!!

[newbite]

IV sedation sounds intense. Do they offer Halcion or another tranquilizing pill? I was really worried about my gum graft but, boy, those 2 Halcion pills (& nitrous) were incredible and I remember almost nothing from the procedure and none of it bothered me. When I had my wisdom teeth out they gave me nitrous which was also really amazing and helpful-- being conscious but not at all anxious or scared about what was happening. Even with the terrible noises and pressure and cracking and digging around. Maybe iv sedation is safer than I think it is-- but if not then if you can avoid it that's the way to go!